[Blindmath] Can PDF math texts be accessed via screen reader?

[P. R. Stanley]

and just in case anyone missed my previous reply, The commandline 
version of the Infty Reader is freely available and I would be 
willing to send a copy to anyone who needs it.
Please feel free to contact me offlist and we'll take it from there.
All the best
Paul

At 10:20 09/04/2009, you wrote:
>Hello,
>John is correct about the current status of PDF, infty reader is 
>about the only way you will get access to equations. However if you 
>can contact the author of the document you may wish to explain your 
>situation and ask whether they have a LaTeX source version of it you 
>could have (quite a number of mathematical PDFs are produced from 
>LaTeX but not all are, and also some authors are reluctant to give 
>out the source, its always worth asking though). You may wish to 
>find web resources in mathml or those websites which use images in 
>html for equations but set the alt tag of the equation image to the 
>LaTeX source (eg. wikipedia seems to do that).
>
>Also John mentions the IVEO for graphs and diagrams, and I have to 
>say although I don't have one when I saw one being demonstrated to 
>me I was surprised how well it works (it managed a diagram which I 
>provided (demonstrator had no prior knowledge what this diagram was 
>going to be) and it was just a matter of scanning the document in 
>and then producing a tactile image with the tiger printer and 
>getting the IVEO to process the image file (it does OCR to find the 
>labels) and then putting the tactile diagram on the touch pad and 
>then exploring the diagram). What I saw of it with the diagram I 
>tried probably wasn't as good as it can do (due to performing OCR as 
>it was from a paper source) and also no extra information had been 
>added to parts of the diagram. I believe if you are starting from a 
>computer file then alot more can be done (chunks of text explaining 
>the diagram can be associated with particular parts of the diagram, 
>if labels are in the file as text then OCR and its inaccuracies are 
>not introduced as the actual text can be used, etc).
>
>I will just state here I have no association with viewplus, I am 
>talking as an individual who has seen some of their products.
>
>Unfortunately all of this does come at a cost and if budgets are 
>limited you have to just try and work out what will be the most 
>useful. EG. might it be more cost effective to just have someone 
>explain diagrams to you and use something like swell paper to 
>produce the diagrams?
>
>Michael Whapples
>On 09/04/09 02:07, John Gardner wrote:
>>Hello Richard.  The Infty Reader can do OCR of PDF and is surprisingly good
>>at getting both the math and text right.  It's not cheap at $900, but it is
>>the only game in town.
>>
>>See
>>http://www.inftyproject.org/
>>Their ChattyInfty accessible math editor has a bit of a learning curve, but
>>works well also.  Both these products are made by a university research team
>>and do not have easy user-friendly interfaces.  But they do work.
>>
>>By the way, it is absolutely not true that you cannot access the graphs and
>>diagrams.  Look at the ViewPlus IVEO Creator Pro package.  You'll need a
>>ViewPlus embosser to make the tactile copy, but it also works well.  Lots of
>>money for software and hardware, but at least today you have really full
>>access to math and science.  Wasn't tru a couple of years ago.
>>http://www.viewplus.com
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>>Behalf Of Richard Dinger
>>Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 5:05 PM
>>To: BlindMath
>>Subject: [Blindmath] Can PDF math texts be accessed via screen reader?
>>
>>Hello,
>>
>>Sorry, this is a bit long.
>>
>>I have spent most of my working career as a software engineer and recently I
>>have been looking into neural networks and linear classifiers.  That led to
>>support vector machines and compact vector machines, which leads to linear
>>algebra in general.  So my initial interest/question for this group was
>>where can I find an accessible text on undergraduate level linear algebra?
>>
>>I took linear algebra 40 years ago at the University of Washington, but
>>recall very little of that course.  But then that question led to what may
>>be a broader question for this group, namely, what are some solid approaches
>>to accessing mathematics texts in PDF via computer screen reader.  I mention
>>PDF texts as I see many of them offered while googling topics.
>>
>>When I say access I mean access to both the written text and at least some
>>access to any equations.  I understand that graphs and diagrams will not be
>>accessible, but can usually be infered from the text.
>>
>>I would be completely happy if equations were in some markup language like
>>La Tex as that can eventually be understood.
>>
>>Are there any commercial products that can convert text and equations to
>>some other format such as word?
>>
>>Finally, is pursuing PDF a fools errand?
>>
>>I will post on a different thread regarding La Tex.
>>
>>Richard
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>>
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>
>
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